She'll be okay, Rid
by The Marvel Encyclopedia
Summary: After hearing news that Lena is ill, Ridley and her boyfriend Link raced from NYC to Gatlin, South Carolina to see how she is. Leaving the Siren pacing with worry and Link desperate to comfort her, and for once she opens up to him and accepts a little help. One-Shot.


Ridley couldn't help but pace.

She whipped her way around the bedroom that had once belonged to her uncle Macon, her resolve wavering with every step. She'd gotten straight back to the small-time, Jesus-lovin' town of Gatlin, South Carolina as soon as she'd heard, jumping so fast into the passenger seat of Link's Beater that she'd barely told him what was going on. Then they'd left New York City behind them as they raced back home, leaving NYC dreams behind.

They'd gotten to Ravenwood Manor early afternoon on what was an abnormally stormy October, though both of them knew exactly why such a storm was brewing, and just what was making their binding rings burn their flesh.

And now, Ridley was pacing the bedroom she had been given to use when she decided that maybe - just maybe - she could be good, light even... or at least not so dark.

"Rid," the blonde heard from her doorway, a familiar and comforting voice that carried throughout the space, "You're gonna leave footprints in the floor if you ain't careful, ease up a bit."

She stopped in her tracks and for a moment the boy belonging to the thick southern accent had thought she'd listened to him for once, but then she opened her cherry red lips. "Ease up a bit?" She accusingly questioned, pinpointing a nerve-racking stare at the silhouette in the doorway, "You want me to 'ease up a bit'?"

His eyes almost popped out of his head, he was only showing some concern for the blonde, it wasn't his fault of she didn't quite take it that way, he was who he was, and correctly showing concern obviously wasn't one of his strong points. He racked his brain for a way out of this, he could pass it off as a joke maybe... nah, that was his go-to move, far too overused.

Instead, he decided that he'd stick his ground, "Yeah actually, that's just what I'm telling you. I get that you're worried Rid but if you carry on like this then you're gonna worry yourself inta an early grave! It happens you know, I even looked it up, hoped my over-baring mother would keel over if I kept up disappointing her. 'Ent worked yet a' course." He was joking for certain, as much as a pain his mother was, Wesley Jefferson Lincoln did love his mamma, deep deep down - and he'd argue further than the otherworld down. But again, Ridley Duchannes was not in the perceptive mood as of right now.

"You should count yourself lucky Link, at least your mamma would shed a tear if you were ta keel over and die on her, I'd be lucky if mine gave my breathless body a second glance," this was bad, Link decided, she'd just defended his mother, and that wasn't something Ridley did as a rule. "Did you hear what she said to me when she found out I'd come back?"

Link mumbled his response, "Since when have you cared?"

"Yup," Ridley replied, "She asked me 'since when have you cared?' Since when _haven't_ I cared about little Lena-Beana? I left for her when I went dark, I didn't want ta hurt her. She-" Ridley wavered and suddenly Link knew this wasn't about his comment about his mother, or what her mother had said to her, this was about Lena.

"She's gonna be okay Rid, I promise ya."

Ridley met his worried glance, tears welling in her eyes and beginning to trickle down her cheeks, taking black sludge that framed the blonde's eyes with them, "Don't make promises you can't keep Shrinky Dink."

"She is though, I get that you're worried an' all but it's just a bad case of food poisoning. Babe, she's gonna be okay once she's done puking her guts out. Barely worth making the trip down her for, it's all cool."

"You said it yourself Link, a _bad_ case of food poisoning. A_ really bad_ case of food poisoning. But what if it wasn't just from not-quite-cooked meat or whatever, what if she was actually, physically poisoned? There are a lot of people out there that I've pissed off that know I care about Lena, they wouldn't hesitate to hurt her to get to me." By now, Ridley was more panda-eyes than pouty-face and her cheeks were streaked with black and her eyes were puffy and red. She looked a mess, but Link thought she had never looked so beautiful, with real emotion and real feeling pouring from her cat-like, dark caster eyes and honest words escaping from smudged, siren red lips. She trusted him to see her like his, all bare in a way that not many people had seen her before. And for Link, this was more intimate than a steamy night beneath the sheets.

He took a few steps towards her, reaching out to cup his hand behind her neck and pulling her face into the crook of his neck. The rest fell naturally, she wrapped her arms around his torso, glittery pink nails digging into the skin of his back in a way that let Link know that she needed him there. He kept one hand in her hair, rubbing her scalp and his other pulled her close into him by snaking around her back, showing Ridley just how much he cared. Link backed Ridley up to the bed, falling onto it, still holding each other, confirming that they wouldn't want to be anywhere else. And soon, two pairs of legs twisted together in a way that should not have been possible, so you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began, letting the other know that they wouldn't want anyone else here.

No more words needed to be said, no 'I love you's or 'I'm here for you's. They weren't needed.

It was just Link and Ridley, Ridley and Link. And for once, nothing to hide.

Maybe Ridley could cut this whole 'dark caster turning light' thing after all.

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